Wedding Fireworks With Music

UKFR Editor Pyro Pete took a trip to Wales to see Skydazzle Pyrotechnics at work with a wedding fireworks display set to music.

When Mike, the owner of Skydazzle Pyrotechnics, mentioned he was doing a wedding display set to music in a beautiful park and orangery setting in Wales, it was too good a photo and video opportunity to miss. So, I packed all my gear up and headed west.

Mike will be familiar to many UKFR readers. Active in our forum since November 2003 (formerly Mike40) he has provided the sound facilities and some professional fireworks at several UKFR member meets such as the St. George competitions.

This wedding display was going to be a bit of a challenge though. Not only did the clients want the fireworks set out to music, they had an interesting choice of themes.

“The music was supplied by the bride and I was given a choice of several Michael Bublé songs and the Arabic song Amr Diab – El Lilady which had to be included,” explained Mike. “I was given free range to edit the songs and I did several mixes before arriving at the final one. Editing the Arabic song was tough as I could not interperate the words so I had to be careful how I did the edit.”

Mike and his team were already on site when I arrived mid-afternoon, with most parts of the large display in the process of being secured and fused.

Some of the many shell tubes at this wedding fireworks display.

The setting was beautiful and I could not imagine a more pretty place to get married. Even so, it did provide some issues in terms of fireworks which needed to be ironed out. Mike explained: “The venue had lots of trees which made getting any angles for the single shots and candles difficult, we managed to thread them between the trees by rotating the site slightly and moving the audience using barrier tape so they faced it head on. We also staggered the sites to get between the trees but viewing head on you cannot see this.”

You can view a 360 degree panorama by clicking the image below. Flash is required and after it has loaded you can click and drag to spin around as if you were standing there.

And you can have a look at the setting up of this display in the gallery below. Remember folks, set up shots are taken at various stages of the day and often don’t represent the final position or angle of the fireworks, many of which are still in the process of being set out.

Wedding Fireworks Display Set-up Photo Gallery

Wedding Fireworks – The Display

I asked Mike about some of the technical aspects of the display.

“We had to synchronise the fireworks to music while keeping the noise down where possible as this is a noise sensitive area,” he said. “Then we tried to make the show as wide as possible – given the high trees each side were restricting this – by using multiple single shots and candles to highlight the punctuation in the songs. Above all to make sure we keep true to our aim of supplying our pyromusicals as ‘fireworks to music’ not ‘fireworks with music’ “.

The evening started with a set piece in the theme of love and a photo opportunity for the bride and groom. On a personal note this was the first time I have ever taken a photo of a bride and groom despite the many dozens of weddings I have photographed the fireworks at!

The bride and groom pose in a pre-display photo.

The display was, frankly, awesome. The musical theme which did not immediately seem a good fireworks match worked amazingly well. I can certainly see the value in using a soundtrack from a quality artist such as Michael Bublé and it really enhanced the atmosphere on what was already a magical night for the client and guests.

Beautiful candles and single-shot fireworks in a stunning wedding venue

“We used cakes from 20mm to 30mm and a mixture of 25 shot, 49 shot and 100 shot vertical and fanned cakes,” explained Mike. “Single shots ranged from 30mm to 50mm. Shells were 65mm, 75mm, 100mm and a single 125mm Yung Feng Meteor shell. Shells were kept to a minimum to reduce noise. All pyro was sourced from MLE or Firemagic. Fired using Fire by Wire using a total of 134 cues split over four Digiseqs at four sites.”

Wedding Fireworks To Music – Video

Here’s my video of the display:

Wedding Fireworks Photo Gallery – Main Display Shots

Here are some photographs of the main display as seen from the audience side. Click on any thumbnail to see a larger version.

Wedding Fireworks – View Of The Firing Zone

A remote camera was positioned nearer to the fireworks with the old abbey in the background and captured some stunning shots:

Skydazzle Pyrotechnics – Further Information

I asked Mike to summarise the services his company can offer:

“Skydazzle are based in Newport, South Wales and cover the whole of Wales and England. We can supply any type of display large or small to suit most budgets. We have our own high quality sound systems to suit almost any venue and event.

“We design every show from scratch and try not to repeat any show where possible. We source all our fireworks with quality in mind and not down to a price and are always on the lookout for different effects. As a family business we all share a passion for fireworks and that shows in the personal service we provide and the quality of our displays, we always get great feedback from our clients and the venues we fire at.”